With her trademark smile and upbeat attitude, Jennifer Garner headed to Harvard University on Saturday to receive the 2022 Hasty Pudding Award from the Hasty Pudding Theatricals, the university's prominent theater troupe.
Garner, 49, spent the afternoon cruising through the streets of Cambridge, Massachusetts, in a convertible while flanked by members of the Theatricals in drag.
The Adam Project star, who wore a long black coat, houndstooth trousers, knit mittens, and, of course, her Hasty Pudding medal around her neck, showed off her high kicks as she danced the can-can with students in front of Harvard's Farkas Hall.
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Later that evening, Garner took the stage to be presented with the famed pudding pot.
"I guarantee my day was better and more fun than yours. I am a devoted member of the Hasty Pudding Club from now on, and I will be a nerd in the audience next year, I promise," she told the crowd. "This has been the most fun day ever."
In the grand tradition of Hasty Pudding, the troupe didn't hesitate to poke fun at Garner and her roles throughout the years. In a nod to her film Yes Day, she was asked a series of questions that she had to answer. So when the students asked for the details of her first kiss, Garner didn't hesitate.
"It was a guy named Matt Crittenden. He tried to go further than a kiss, and I swatted it away. He broke up with me the next day because he said I was a prude, which was a badge I've worn proudly ever since," Garner said, laughing. "I was 18!"
Garner also spoke candidly about her current life, including a thrilling upcoming milestone.
"I am turning 50 in over 2 months," she said after the roast. "I'm so excited. Just this morning, I was starting to make some plans and get a little serious. I'm a last-minute planner."
When asked about her most rewarding moment as both a parent and an actor, Garner said the two don't often cross over.
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"I can't say my kids really enter my work world very much," said Garner, who shares daughters Violet, 16, and Seraphina, 13, and son Samuel, 9, with ex Ben Affleck.
"They're very much kids who go to school, and it didn't even occur to me to bring my 16-year-old today because she had school and a debate tournament," the actress added. "Now, I so badly wish she was here! I'm kind of a geek of a mom in that way."
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Garner also spoke about the fellow Hasty Pudding honoree from whom she sought advice before her arrival: Kerry Washington, Harvard's 2016 female honoree.
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"I did talk to Kerry Washington the other day, and I decided to tell her to not tell me anything. I said, 'I'm going to go in blind,' and I'm so glad I did. That could have dampened my overall joy and enthusiasm for the day," she shared.
Before her parade and pudding pot presentation, Garner attended a lunch with students at Harvest in Harvard Square. She arrived masked, but smiled brightly and greeted everyone as she entered a private room to dine on a kale, apple, and squash salad, Faroe Island salmon, and chocolate Dobos cake.
"She was super nice, and made sure to stop and say goodbye to staff on the way out," Harvest general manager Mike Bainton told PEOPLE.
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Following the parade, Garner joined the Harvard production team for dinner at Bar Enza in the Charles Hotel.
The menu for the celebratory meal included wheat berry risotto and rigatoni with Tuscan-style meat Ragu as appetizers, followed by main courses of roasted chicken or broiled Wagyu steak. The dinner was capped off with a dessert option of chocolate ricotta torta and panna cotta with pickled cranberries and polenta crumbs.
